Corporate Bonds - Article Archive

Pacific Gas & Electric has gone bankrupt with $52bn of debt, blaming forest fires that seared California during 2018. Vale, with $11bn, has been downgraded to the bottom edge of investment grade after its horrific dam burst last Friday.

Sixteen companies, all leading green bond issuers, have formed a Corporate Forum on Sustainable Finance. Electricité de France was the prime mover. Xavier Girre, chief financial officer of EDF, tells GlobalCapital why the group is needed, why he supports a green supporting factor and how EDF’s sustainable finance strategy is developing.

Russian state-owned oil and gas giant Gazprom announced the mandate for a new dollar benchmark bond on Thursday, just days after a well-flagged move by the US Treasury to lift sanctions on Rusal and EN+. Market participants hailed the move as providing a more “constructive” and “encouraging” environment for Russian bonds.

Spanish telecoms company Telefonica this week became the latest issuer to sell green bonds. The volume of money dedicated to green bond investments meant that there was huge demand and the deal had participation of nearly 50% from green investors. But if those buyers had that much conviction they wouldn’t have waited for this trade.

Harley Davidson made heavy weather of strong US bond market conditions on Thursday after a dovish Fed and a month-long rally in spreads appeared to set the dollar market up for a strong run of issuance in February.

Spanish telecoms company Telefónica on Monday launched the first green bond in euros from the telecoms sector. The firm, rated as one of Spain’s leading companies in the fight against climate change, published its Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) framework in November but had to wait two months to sell its first green bond.

Having accounted for the largest share of international issuance in Swiss francs in 2018, Korean borrowers appear to be acquiring a taste for the market again in 2019. Following last week’s sustainability trade for Korea Western Power, Hyundai Capital returned to the market on Tuesday with its first green bond in the currency.

A quiet week for corporate bond issuance may have helped BMW Finance achieve tight pricing on Thursday, but selling its largest ever deal with new issue premiums in single digits was still an excellent outcome when compared to the premiums being paid at the start of the month.

Abundant supply, a diverse crop of issuers and some rare long-tenor deals characterised Asia’s bond market ahead of the week-long Chinese New Year holiday, setting the stage for a positive February. Addison Gong reports.

Macau casino operator Studio City Finance has priced a $600m deal to fund a tender offer, winning plaudits for its precise pricing. But while the company could return to the bond market again this year, overall supply from the sector is expected to be subdued.

Most bond investors are making minimal effort to lobby companies to improve their performance on climate change, a new report has found. Some feel they haven’t the right to make demands; some leave it to equity colleagues; some do not see it as relevant.

German fashion house Gerry Weber has filed for insolvency after failing to repay a Schuldschein tranche last November and after subsequent discussions with lenders about restructuring the company broke down. The result is that Schuldschein lenders are out of pocket and have yet another example of default in a market ill-suited to the idea. Silas Brown investigates.

The day after the UK government mandated Teresa May to go to Brussels and renegotiate the country’s exit agreement with the European Union, the UK electricity transmission company National Grid tested investors’ appetites for UK assets and found a host of willing buyers without having to offer much of a premium.

Are Asian investors ready to embrace duration again? Oil India and Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) proved there is clear demand, rolling out a pair of 10 year bonds on Tuesday. SCB also added a five year tranche.

Telefónica received overwhelming demand for its debut green bond on Monday with more than €5.4bn of orders, but unfulfilled investors were left with a blank new issue screen on Tuesday as corporate bond issuers move into reporting season. However, it has been one of the busiest Januaries on record.

There was a wall of supply from Chinese property companies at the start of the week. Road King Infrastructure and Yuzhou Properties brought a pair of callable four year bonds, but Jingrui Holdings and Fantasia Holdings Group both stuck to the very short-end of the curve.

The US Treasury went ahead with its plans to lift sanctions on Rusal and EN+ on Sunday. The move was well-flagged and has not caused much of a reaction in capital markets but was nevertheless seen as being ‘constructive’.

Southern Water launched a tender offer on Wednesday as the last step in a full-scale revamp of its capital structure — a journey which helped RBS handle nearly £1.3bn in uncollateralised swap exposure — in the largest ever repackaging of inflation risk. Ross Lancaster and Owen Sanderson report.

Sixteen European industrial companies have formed the Corporate Forum on Sustainable Finance, to grant themselves a stronger voice in the green bond market and promote the use of sustainable finance products.

The European Investment Bank, European Commission and EU member states are struggling to decide how to run InvestEU, a €47bn guarantee from the EU budget supposed to support €650bn in investment, as a successor to the Juncker plan. The Commission is seeking more direct control, while the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development is also after a bigger role.

Korea Western Power (Kowepo) chose an appropriate week to launch the first ever green bond in Swiss francs from an emerging market issuer – and not just because sustainability was high on the agenda at Davos. The deal also came in a week in which representatives from the IFC and the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) met in Bern to discuss the results of a consultation on impact investing among more than 100 members of the Association of Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF).

French hotel company Accor launched new hybrid and senior bond issues on Thursday after announcing the deals at the end of last week. The new deals finance tender offers for some of the company’s existing hybrid and senior notes.

IBM returned to the euro corporate bond market for the first time since 2017 on Thursday, to sell its largest ever deal in the euro market and to push into a maturity not seen from a corporate issuer so far in 2019.

Germany’s largest residential property company Vonovia attracted €4.5bn of demand for its latest deal on Thursday, as the property sector continues to be one of the more popular in the corporate bond market.

French supermarket chain Auchan attracted plenty of demand for its third consecutive January new issue but it had to pay a hefty new issue premium to ensure the deal got done. The supermarket sector is one of several retail sectors priming investors for poor annual results.

The volume of corporate bonds with triple-B ratings, and vulnerable to downgrades into high yield, is at its highest in history. But while the US market fears the prospect of fallen angels, Europe appears to see advantages.

Emerging market investors are enjoying an excellent start to the year in the secondary market, but primary supply has not followed up on its strong start to the year. Bankers and investors are confident that issuers will get moving soon though.

Volkswagen Bank started its funding for 2019 with a hefty four tranche deal on Thursday that will contribute to its minimum requirement of own funds and eligible liabilities (MREL) when the German regulator decides what that should be.

Following the success of Engie’s green hybrid bond the previous week, the French energy company’s Portuguese peer, EDP, launched its own version on Wednesday. While EDP’s deal did not achieve quite the same demand or tight pricing, the result was still a good one.